Monday, August 13, 2012

From Dawson’s viewpoint, the game’s somewhat different today. Money has skewed the structure of baseball — from the minors on up.

“With so much money being tossed around, with players able to make so much earlier (in their career), that seems to be their main motivation,” Dawson said. “You rarely see, ‘for the love of the game;’ players going out, wanting to be loyal; wanting to spend a lot of extra time making sure they belong (in the Major Leagues).

“I see a lot of players who really aren’t seasoned; who don’t know the basics and fundamentals. More so, than in the past, money is driving the game. It’s still played the same, but a lot more players play the game for the money itself.”

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More money than I'll ever have, but for Dawson it represented about a 50% paycut. That's pretty rare for a star player at age 32, who was pretty good the year before (OPS+ 123). Collusion is the big story, but Andre's desire to be in Wrigley field was genuine. And as Kerry Wood recently discovered, he still resides in the Ivy. Among HOFer's that has to be a one-up on Roberto Alomar, who lived in the Skydome hotel during his Blue Jay years.

Now that I think of it he's nowhere near the same level of paycut that another gold glove, power hitting CF whose name starts with "Andr" took at age 32. Andruw Jones went from 18 million or something around there to 500,000. Difference is he earned that pay cut with his play (or lack thereof).

“I see a lot of players who really aren’t seasoned; who don’t know the basics and fundamentals. More so, than in the past, money is driving the game. It’s still played the same, but a lot more players play the game for the money itself.”

When I see quotes like this it reminds me of something Bill James did, pulling together a series of quotes from baseball history. I'm he had one from 1885 or something that matches this almost word for word.

When I see quotes like this it reminds me of something Bill James did, pulling together a series of quotes from baseball history. I'm he had one from 1885 or something that matches this almost word for word.

And even James isn't immune to this! I remember James declaring after 1991 (I think it was the 1992 Baseball Book, the one where James proposed new Bermanisms Scott "Would Your Sister Come and" Leius and Jose "Jack" Offerman) that the economics of the game doomed Cleveland and Houston from any relevance at any point in the near-future. Cleveland, of course, was relevant just 2 years later and was one of the best teams of the decade and Houston didn't have a losing season after James's words until 2000.

Speaking of Bermanisms, I was watching a AA game in Reading, must have been somewhere between 1998-2003, when this player stepped to the plate. I just turned to my brotther and said "I can't wait till Chris Berman gets a hold of that one."